Monday, 29 May 2017

Reflections of Towns.

Hello world.
It has been such a long time since I did a post that I feel guilty. Far too much for my comfort has been going on that kept me away from this blog. I have high hopes of doing a second post very soon after this one. Keep popping back.

In the last week of January this year, I passed a shop window that had a nice painting in it. It was a mass produced one but I thought it might be useful as inspiration. Looking at the photo I took on one of our computers at home, I realised I had unexpectedly taken a shot that was FAR better than I could have hoped for. (I'll point the photo out when we get to it in the blog). The following Sunday, on a grey, cold afternoon, I got the bus to Halifax for a photo shoot session based on that one shot, the week before. I was going to take photos of reflections in shop windows.

The results were so good that I decided make a book of the images. That book inspired me to go to Huddersfield town centre on a Sunday and take a set of reflections in windows there. I spent quite some time at Huddersfield University, taking photos of the reflections in their modern buildings and of the buildings themselves. It was a warm sunny day, very unusual for the time of year. Students were sat on the grass in the campus in small groups, talking or reading. In some ways, this set of photos were more striking that the Halifax ones. The images below are a mixture of Halifax and Huddersfield photos. I'm not going to say where each photo was taken. I'd rather let the images speak for themselves. I did nothing to these images except adjust the contrast and levels. Otherwise, they are just as I saw them.

So, are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

The above image is the one which gave

me the idea of taking photos of reflections.

That's the end of this post, I took over 8o photos on both shoots and used about 60 photos in each one. I have the ones for the Huddersfield ready to print, then I'll make a book with them. I showed the Halifax book to a friend of ours, she loved it. Then she pointed out that it was possible to walk through the Halifax Building Society Complex and that they had left an old building standing. They have built a huge glass fronted unit round it. It's lit up all the time and seems to serve as a refreshment area for staff. The following Sunday, I spent a very happy hour taking photos of the complex. It will by the third book in my "Reflections" series.

If anyone is inspired to go and take photos of reflections, Sunday is the best day. It's always quiet on Sundays, you don't get the public taking a look at you, then at what you are taking shots of, then waking between you and it. Sometimes they even stand and look in the window. Grrrr! Be patient with them, they can't help it.